What’s opening this week.
Frenchette, El Lugar, Bento, The Gotham Burger Social Club, and more.
Frenchette Bakery at the Whitney Museum
The Whitney now has a replacement for Untitled, and it’s a pretty good one. Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr’s Frenchette Bakery has opened its second outpost in the Whitney Museum. At the museum location, executive head baker Peter Edris, executive pastry chef Michelle Palazzo and executive chef Angela Zeng are doing a menu of pastries and savory fare, easy to enjoy before or after a visit to Henry Taylor’s B Side (an excellent show). “It really is the love child between the restaurant and the bakery,” says Zeng, who cooked at Frenchette and prior to that at Al Coro. “We can be a little less French and a little more everything else.”
That said, you don’t need a ticket to the museum to drop in for a morning coffee and one or ten of the bakery’s classic 81 layer croissants baked with local wildflower honey. There are also grab-and-go items like jambon-beurre sandwiches, sticky sugar-crusted kouign-amann, buckwheat chocolate chip cookies, and an array of flaky viennoiseries, as well as baguettes and other loaves baked on site (yes you can pick up their signature City Loaf!)
There’s also a selection of seriously magnificent pastries (these could be displayed upstairs) including Palazzo’s Paris-Brest with Sicilian pistachio; orange blossom-scented tarte Tropezienne; riz au lait; tarte au flan, tarte au citron, and an éclair suprême with cacao nibs.
Once you’re done with dessert, the team is doing an all-day-savory menu from egg dishes in the morning to soups, salads, pizzas, tarte flambé, and duck confit in the afternoon and evening.
For information, visit whitney.org/visit/dining or follow the Museum at @whitneymuseum.
Bento
Chef Robby Cook, a sushi guru who trained at Sumile, Koi and BondST and under Chef Masaharu Morimoto, has been running an exquisite under-the-radar sushi counter called Coral inside Point Seven in the MetLife Building. Now he’s set to open a more casual take-away sushi and omakase spot called Bento.
His to-go only menu is ideal for lunch or an easy dinner, with a selection of eight different bento boxes, all stocked with fish from the famed Toyosu Fish Market in Tokyo.ranging from $23 to $65. Each box comes with ginger, soy sauce, wasabi and a choice of shishito peppers, edamame or seaweed salad.
Here’s what he’s planning:
Kyoto—LA ($21): Two maki rolls (one with Mizuna, Carrots & Avocado; and the other with Cucumber & Kanpyo)
Tokyo—NYC ($26): One maki roll (choice of Spicy Tuna, Salmon Avocado or Red Crab California); and five pieces of sushi (Tuna, Tai, Salmon, Kanpachi and Hotate)
Osaka—London ($29): One maki roll (choice of Spicy Tuna, Salmon Avocado, or Red Crab California); three pieces of sushi (Tuna, Salmon, Kanpachi) and three pieces sashimi (Tuna, Salmon, Kanpachi)
Maki Rolls ($29): Spicy Tuna, Salmon Avocado & Red Crab California
Chirashi ($29): Chef’s choice of assorted seasoned sashimi served over sushi rice, with sesame and nori
Donburi “Style” ($32): Choice of Tuna or Salmon Sashimi, served over sushi rice with sesame, nori, and pickled wasabi stems
Signature ($45): One maki roll (Spicy Tuna, Avocado or Red Crab California); 8 pieces of sushi with two each (Tuna, Tai, Salmon, Kanpachi); and Tuna or Salmon Sashimi with onion soy, shiso, sesame
Chef’s Omakase ($65): One Negitoro Roll, 10 pieces of sushi (Tuna, Tai, Salmon, Kanpachi, Hotate, Chu Toro, O Toro, Aji, Uni, Kinmedai), and three pieces of Tuna Sashimi
Bento will open from Mondays through Fridays from 11 AM–8 PM for takeout. Delivery orders can be placed via all major platforms, including Seamless, Caviar, Grubhub and UberEats.
El Lugar
Our friends from In Good Company Hospitality, the folks who run my home away from home, the Rockaway Hotel, have opened El Lugar Cantina (30 West 30th Street, NYC), a regional Mexican restaurant near Hudson Yards. Executive Chef Alex Mixcoatl has created a menu that reflects his and his cooks’ Mexican culinary heritage, which means mole with animal crackers from Náhuatl (never had this!), Oaxaca’s Tlayudas, birria variations from the state of Jalisco, plenty of tacos (particularly good crispy fish ones), and larger plates like wood-fired whole snapper with salsa roja and tortillas. There’s also an extensive agave program and terrific craft cocktails like “In a Hammock in Tulum” with vodka, hibiscus and lemon that’s calling me right now. Let’s go!
The Gotham Burger Social Club
Finance guy turned burger slinger Mike Puma will turn his Gotham Burger Social Club pop-up into an official brick-and-mortar restaurant today at 131 Essex Street. He’s serving his signature smashburgers (in single, double, or triple), along with hot wings, fried chicken sandwiches, frickles (you guessed it, fried pickles) with ghost pepper ranch dressing, crispy fries, and more starting at 11am. (GO NOW!)
For the grand opening today, they are hosting a ribbon cutting with @adamrichman and giving away 100 GBSC swag bags to the first 100 customers. All week you have a chance to win a GBSC Tee & Hat. To enter simply post a dish from the restaurant and tag them on Instagram. They will pick a winner at random this weekend! GBSC will be open every day at 11am.
Mishik
Mishik, a Japanese restaurant featuring Edomae-style sushi omakase from Executive Chef/Partner Markee Manaloto (formerly an Omakase Chef at both Michelin-starred Sushi Yasuda and Kissaki), has opened in Hudson Square. Designed by Studio Rolling (Mari and Kochi in NYC), this beautiful spot is an elegant respite for a leisurely dinner of omakase, or just a gorgeous cocktail and some snacks at the bar.
Mishik’s new wave Japanese menu offers two omakase options (12 or 16 nigiri pieces, handroll, soup and dessert for $120/$165), a chef’s tasting ($135), plus a la carte selections, featuring Edomae-style sushi (it’s dry-aged for up to two weeks), Japanese fish and seafood, and more, all sourced by Chef Manaloto from Tokyo’s Toyosu Market.
Consulting sommelier Doreen Winkler has created a beverage list that includes grower champagne, mineral-driven whites and lighter, earthy reds from top small producers in Japan, Burgundy, Jura, Alsace, and the US.
At the bar, Head Bartender Su Sung (Basement Chinatown, Soogil) is pouring infusions and Japanese spirits in drinks like a Sujungwa Old Fashioned with Hibiki Harmony Japanese whisky, ginger and cinnamon; and an Autumn Smoke with red chili-infused Vida mezcal and sherry. Cheers!